 Welcome everyone and thank you so much for joining our well our webinar I've been told that we have 97 people that are registered for this I'm assuming when I look at the numbers that some of you are gathered together in the same room and joining us in that way but thanks to each and every one of you for joining us as we learn together about how to support you as instructional leaders in designing school or district plans for creating awareness understanding an application of Indigenous foundational knowledge. As Christine mentioned we most certainly welcome your comments and your questions throughout the webinar and we encourage you to share your thinking we really want to hear what you are thinking or any of your questions but by and large we will probably respond to most of your questions if we have time at the end of the webinar but otherwise I will send an email response to your questions and those responses will be sent out as part of the follow-up email to give you a link to this archive webinar as well as a link to the questions or the responses to the questions. So as you know this webinar is 1.1 and a half hours and we will try our very best to get you out at 5.30 because we know and appreciate the busy lives you lead and thank you so much for taking time to join us today. So my name is Courtney Zegler and I'm a facilitator with the Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium. I have been a teacher, I have been a principal and a director all with Edmonton Public Schools and worked with Edmonton Public Schools for 38 years and now I'm doing this work and loving it. And so co-facilitating with me today is my name is Crystal Sholan and I'm a learning consultant with Elk Island Catholic Schools. I still maintain a part-time classroom position also. As a learning consultant at Elk Island Catholic I do have multiple portfolios one of which is Indigenous education and so I'm well into my 25th year of teaching and have quite a varied background between the three prairie provinces and bring quite a passion to this role. Great and I'm so happy to be working with Crystal on this webinar but also just to share a little background information. Elk Island Catholic Schools volunteered to work with the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortium to pilot the planning tools that we're featuring in this webinar. Now Crystal as you know works with Elk Island Catholic Schools and that district and I are working together with three leaders, three administrators from the district and these leaders have used the planning tools to assist them in designing comprehensive plans for their schools, plans to create awareness, understanding and application of Indigenous foundational knowledge for all staff in their schools but also for the district as a whole. Now you need to know as you look at these plans later on in the webinar that these principles worked under some very tight timelines and produced considering their timelines some absolutely amazing results. So before we begin we'd like to share our land acknowledgement. We acknowledge that we are on 3d6 territory, a traditional meeting grounds, gathering place and traveling route to the Cree, Cree, Soto, Blackfoot, Métis, Denae and Okotisu. We acknowledge all the many First Nations, Métis and Inuit whose footsteps have marked these lands for centuries. But we also acknowledge that this is a provincial webinar and so we know that there are people here from 3d4, 7 and 8 territories perhaps as well. And so we want to acknowledge that too. Welcome to everyone. So for today what we will be looking at the following outcomes. First of all reflect on your personal reasons for leading your school community on a journey of deepening awareness, understanding and application of Indigenous foundational knowledge. And then we start with the personal because I believe this work needs to come from the heart. Then we'll reflect on your school or district's readiness for creating awareness, understanding and application of Indigenous foundational knowledge. We'll learn about some planning tools. Those were piloted by Alcalan Catholic Schools and these tools can assist you in designing comprehensive plans, successful comprehensive plans to create awareness, understanding and application of Indigenous foundational knowledge. You'll learn about some resources and supports that could be embedded into your school or district plan. And then you'll view some sample plans created by our three leaders from Alcalan Catholic Schools. So we have a very full webinar for you. I'm going to share lots of slides to keep you interested, keep you watching and to keep you listening. So stay tuned. So creating awareness, understanding and application of Indigenous foundational knowledge is complex work. It can be fraught with emotions with political agendas, uncertainty and confusion. And I'm sure you're thinking about all those things already. Before looking at supports and resources that will assist you as leaders in designing your plans, I think we need to take a step back and reflect on why this work is important to you personally. Becoming clear about your personal reasons for engaging in this work will serve you well as you lead this work in your school community. So with that in mind, let's begin our webinar by looking at what's in our hearts and reflecting on why this work is important to us personally. It is through our own personal passion and commitment for this work that we will truly make a difference. So we want to answer the question that's on this slide. Why should you create awareness, understanding and application of First Nations, Métis and Inuit foundational knowledge in your school community? And you can see this quote here from Heather who is a speaker, writer, a coach and a facilitator. She says, my name is Heather and more than anything, I don't want to be racist. And yet, there is one thing I know, and that is that reconciliation needs to begin with me. Before I can take part in the in the part of, no, before I can be part of the healing process, I need to peel away the layers of my own stories, find the seeds of the oppressor buried in me in the dress. And I think that speaks, you know, to the whole idea of why. So to help you connect to your inner self, I'd like to share a few perspectives that might help you become more clear in your own personal reasons for leading this work in your schools. I thought we can start by listening to our indigenous people and their perspective on this work. And I thought it would have been amazing and wonderful to have an elder open up this session for us. But that did not work out for today. And just as a little bit of a side, I can't stress enough the importance of bringing our local indigenous people into each step of the planning process to guide inform and inform our work. Instead, I thought I would bring the indigenous perspective to you through a short video. And this video features Justice Marie Sinclair, who was the chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Let's listen to what he says about reconciliation. And as you listen, reflect on what resonates with you. What does he say that contributes to or clarifies your personal reason for leading this work in your schools? And Christine is setting this up and so Christine, take it away. Hello, everybody. I'm Marie Sinclair. Sorry, Corey, I'm getting some feedback. Can you meet your microphone? Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. I want to talk to you for a few minutes about the issue of reconciliation, something which of course is very important to us here at the Commission, but also is of interest and importance to a lot of people in Canada. One of the things that we at the Commission have discovered is that it took us in terms of the relationship between Aboriginal people in this country. Seven generations of children went through the residential schools. And each of those children who are educated were told that their lives were not as good as the lives of the non-Aboriginal people of this country. They were told that their languages, their cultures were relevant pagans and uncivilized and needed to give up that way of life to come to a different way of living. At the same time that that was going on, non-Aboriginal children in the non-Aboriginal school systems of this country were also being told the same. So as a result, many generations of children, including you and your parents, in a different way, in the wrong way, in a way that is negative when it comes to Aboriginal people, we need to change that. It was the educational system that has contributed to this problem in this country. And it's the educational system we believe that's going to help us to get away from this. We need to look at the way that we educate children. We need to look at the way that we educate ourselves. We need to look at what it is that our textbooks say about Aboriginal people. We need to look at what it is that Aboriginal people, themselves, are allowed to say within the educational system about their own histories. In addition to what's important when it comes to looking at the way that children are educated, is to understand that because it took us so many generations to get to this point, it's going to take us at least a few generations to be able to say that we are making progress. We cannot look for quick and easy solutions because there are none. We need to be able to look at this from the perspective of where do we want to be in three or four or five or seven generations from now when we talk about the relationship between Aboriginal and non Aboriginal people in this country. And if we can agree on what that relationship needs to look like in the future, then what we need to think about is what can we do today that will contribute to that objective. Reconciliation will be about ensuring that everything that we do today is aimed at that high standard of restoring that balance to that relationship. Oh, so Justice Murray Sinclair said a lot of things and you know I've heard this video several times and each time I hear it, he resonates with me in a deeper perspective. And hopefully you feel the same way. Perhaps his comments have inspired you to move forward with this work in your school. To me, every time I hear the video, I'm struck by that one question that he asks, where do we want to be in three or four or five or seven generations from now? And that question has helped me to think about what it is I want to to come out of this work. What is my vision for this work? And why is this work important to me? So thinking about that yourselves as well. Justice Sinclair provided one perspective into why this work is important through his video. But perhaps looking at some indigenous statistics may help you to clarify why you wish to lead this work. These statistics that you see on the slide here are based on the most recent data from 2011. I couldn't find the recent data and I think this is still the recent data. The indigenous population, as you know or may know, is the fastest growing population in Canada, comprised of First Nations, non status aboriginals, Métis and Inuit. And so take a moment to reflect on the staff and the students who form your school community. Let's just make this personal here. Who are these students? How many of your students have self identified as indigenous in your school or district? And although this work is not about identification of our indigenous students, it is important to recognize and celebrate our indigenous student population. As Justice Murray Sinclair said in the video, our work is about leading our school community in aiming at a high standard of restoring the balance of the relationship with our growing indigenous people. And you can see that 6.5% of the Alberta population is indigenous and growing. And so perhaps your reason for engaging in this work is because of the treaty information. As we acknowledge in the land acknowledgement, we have four treaties in Alberta. To what degree do your students and your staff, as well as the larger community, understand the treaties in Alberta and know about the history, the signing dates, the people involved in the complexities related to the signings. Knowledge and understanding of signing of treaties and the significance of these treaties will most certainly impact our relationships with one another. And as we move towards reconciliation, how treaties are regarded, what significance treaties have with indigenous people and why they may T are often overlooked in the telling of the story, are topics that I personally believe need to be addressed. And so I love the quote here. We all have the responsibility to teach the truth. And this quote comes from a hairstylist and I think it really speaks to the whole idea of truth. You have to know the truth, the full truth in order to have an opinion on it. In order to know it's wrong, you need to know what's happening out there. In my case, I didn't know about the truth until I was 16. And I felt betrayed by my school system. And how dare I take English? How dare I take history and not know the history that's going on in my own country? I felt so betrayed. And I think that's wrong. It should be in all books. It shouldn't be in Aboriginal studies. It should be in history. It should elaborate more and not just one paragraph. Get involved, stay involved, because people need to change. A very powerful message. So we also look at the Métis Nation of Alberta. And we, you know, one of the things that really struck me about this slide is the idea of settlements versus treaties. And do we know the difference between the two? And what is the history? Then we look at our Inuit people in Alberta. And that as well as a growing population. And our Inuit people also were sent to residential schools in the 50s. And they suffered the same indignities that are the rest of our Indigenous population did. And so our history books have not always shared the truth. Learning the true story through the lens and in collaboration with our Indigenous people may be the reason you are leading this work. We also have our residential schools. And the whole story of residential schools. We have 29 schools in Alberta. Alberta had the most residential schools in all of Canada. And the impact of residential schools affects us all. And as you think about it, and you look at the impact here on this slide, a huge list of the impact of residential schools. And as leaders, I think, you know, as you look at that list, you go, wow, I see evidence of this in our schools. And, you know, again, make it personal. What's happening there? And how is this leading you to a reason for doing this work to create awareness, understanding and application of Indigenous foundational knowledge? I'm just checking with my notes here, sorry. So leadership as essential medicine. Successful school leadership is underpinned by the core values and beliefs of the leader. These values and beliefs inform the leader's decisions and actions. And together with the values and beliefs of other community members or other members of the school community, feed directly into the development of a shared school vision which shapes the teaching and learning, student and social capital outcomes of schooling. And so, you know, you want to think about why do you believe it is important to build Indigenous foundational knowledge in your school community? And when I think of why it's important to me, I think about my grandchildren. And I think about that for my grandchildren, they need to know the truth. They need to be able to have that understanding and that awareness and that knowledge to build better relationships and restore that balance that Justice Murray Sinclair speaks about. So over to you, Crystal. What do you think? Why are you doing this work? I agree with everything you said, Corey. For me, it's about our staff. It's about our students and our community to have a better understanding through knowing what the truth is because there is so much out there that people just are not aware of. And the more they learn, the more surprised they are, I think, and the more it starts to touch their heart so that they want to change. I think through this work we can start to erase those stereotypes. We can build trust and hopefully we can move forward together with a mutual respect. But again, the foundation of that is knowing the truth and it's the only way to make a stronger community. Corey, as you said earlier in the webinar, we had worked with three different leaders within our school division and one of the leaders had I think a really poignant quote that I'd like to read here today. This leader said, the new teacher quality standards and the leadership quality standards allow my entire teaching staff to begin the conversation in a meaningful, purposeful, and systematic way. The new standard is now a requirement. This is not an individual PGP conversation with one or two staff members that may have a keen interest to learn and explore the Indigenous foundational knowledge required in order to lead their students. This is a provincial requirement that requires my entire staff to move forward, reflect, and determine where they are with their knowledge base in order to lead their students with an Indigenous and Catholic focus. I feel that it is important that we support our teachers in gathering the knowledge in order to foster Indigenous learning and appreciation of the cultures, world views, histories, and current realities through a variety of activities, assessments, and classroom conversations. I believe the approaches and tools that we're using will allow us to foster relationships that welcome, nurture, and honor individual students' stories and cultures and supports the weaving of culture and curriculum to enhance the learning for all students. So it is a very personal journey that we're all undertaking, and yet there is the provincial requirements that we do embrace it and I think if we can start with the heart then we're able to tie in to the requirements that we have as professionals to be able to work with this information. That's great, thanks so much, Crystal. I think, you know, to wrap this piece up as leaders, you absolutely matter what you say, what you think, what you do. As the leader, it's watched by each member in the school community. Your actions often speak louder than your words and they all stem from your core beliefs. So being clear on your core beliefs and values absolutely matters. And, you know, we ask that you really reflect on this and we've spent a little time in this precious hour and a half to talk about your personal reason for doing this work. And it is not a question I think you can answer right now, but take a little time after this webinar is over, spend some quality time reflecting and thinking about what is your reason from the heart for doing this work. And, you know, Crystal talked about the TQS and the LQS and, you know, really it is another reason now. I would say it's not the only reason and I think you want to get to the personal reasons first. But we are all expected to meet these competencies and, you know, I like the quote here again. We need to shift thinking and attitudes, recreating them, your thoughts and putting them back in a good way. That's really what this is all about today is recreating our thoughts, putting them back in a way and moving forward with this. So with that in mind, actually if I just go back to this one more time, we also know that there is the TQS and it has a competency as well that's around the foundational knowledge. And our teachers are looking to us as leaders in terms of support, deepening their understanding before they can take it into the classrooms. Just as I think you as leaders are going like, I need to deepen my own knowledge before I can lead in my school community. So having said that, ARPDC actually sent out a survey in March of 2017 and asked principals, leaders across the province, how confident they were in their leadership abilities to support the school community in the two bullets that you see there, enabling all school staff and students to gain knowledge for the histories, cultures, languages, contributions, perspectives in current contexts as well as developing and understanding of the legacy of residential schools and the impacts of intergenerational trauma on learner development. And on average, 40% of school leaders feel confident in their ability to support school staff, which on the flip side means 60% of our principals are not feeling confident to move forward. And so really, that's what this is about. This is about giving you some confidence to help you decide where to start and what are some resources that are out there. And Crystal's going to share with you a perspective from one of the leaders in terms of how that leader felt in relation to the starting point. I think you'll resonate with that comment. Just to give a little bit of background with this too, work had been done in our district prior to this year, but it was somewhat where schools are working in isolation and with isolated supports. So there wasn't a consistent support system put into place. And this is the first year that we're working toward that. So this leader's comments, I think reflect that not having that system-wide support system in place. So this leader reported, at this point in my Indigenous foundational knowledge, I find it difficult to plan with the limited and instructional leader within my building. I find myself out of my comfort zone. I feel that I'm part of the journey with my teachers, students, and staff in learning the foundational knowledge that is required. I will learn to lean on my community elder and Indigenous community for the knowledge to support and create our school plan. And really, when we look at the whole staff and the whole district, we do have that range in foundational knowledge, but there is a desire to do this work and to do it well. The concern comes in, are we doing it correctly and do we have the supports and the resources that we need? And I think that resonates with you as you listen to that comment from that leader here in the district that we all have that passion and the desire to be clear around what that is is what we talked about initially. And now let's look at and how can we make this happen and be successful with that. And so a lot of times I get that question, well, where do I start? What is the first thing I should be doing? And we want to back that up a little bit and really think about the readiness in your school or your district. To begin this work. And so the question on the slide is, is your school or district ready to invest in the introduction or scaling up of the work to create awareness, understanding an application of indigenous foundational knowledge? And so we're suggesting that you consider readiness first. You have that article that you see on the slide here in your folder and take some time later after the webinar to read the full article, but the next few slides we'll share some key ideas related to that article. So readiness is defined as a developmental point at which a person, organization or system has the capacity and the willingness to engage in creating awareness, understanding an application of indigenous foundational knowledge. And to me, there are two key words in that quote, capacity and willingness. And so thinking about that, you know, creating that readiness is a critical component both in initiating and or scaling up the work and is an essential starting point. So readiness is often an under-emphasized part of the implementation process. Resistance occurs when people are asked to prematurely move to action. So thinking about your school community, are they ready for action? And sometimes it's they're not resistant to the change, but they're just not quite ready yet for that change. And proceeding with this work prematurely can lead to both ineffective and expensive implementation attempts. The authors of the article state that in some cases, leadership teams within a school or a district fully explore the change initiative, decided on a course of action without the engagement from a representative stakeholder group, including the local indigenous people. And the same leaders and managers were surprised when collaborators, staff and colleagues experienced or demonstrated some resistance to change. So we really have to think about are we ready and are we engaging the stakeholders? So we can't simply wait for readiness to appear. In education, readiness for change is something that needs to be developed, nurtured and sustained. It is not a pre-existing condition waiting to be found or an enduring characteristic of a person, organization or system. So accountability for creating readiness rests with the leaders, not with those who are expected or invited to change. So scaling up requires recognition of a clear need for creating awareness, understanding an application of indigenous foundational knowledge. And unless the needs are clear, the leaders and major stakeholders will not have sufficient motivation to fully participate in a multi-year process of changing education in classrooms, districts and overall system functions. So the need needs to be validated with data or broad consensus in order to stimulate sustained action and track progress toward the intended outcomes. And so what data can you or your district collect to stimulate action? How will you create a sense of urgency or a sense of readiness or a sense of yes, I want to move forward with this? And often this is where your personal commitment and your passion and your reasons for doing this work will help you to move forward. Crystal, I think your district gathered some data before beginning this work or as part of this work. That's right. When we gathered in the fall, I had a representative from each school join into an indigenous COP. And so we've been meeting throughout the year. But one of our first tasks was to lay some groundwork to find out what was happening in our district, what was the level of knowledge, what was the level of confidence. And so we created a survey that we sent out to all staff, not just all teachers but all staff to sort of gauge their level of confidence. One of the questions we asked was related to the land acknowledgement. In many of our schools, we do read the land acknowledgement at a number of public forums and we wanted to know whether or not people were understanding why that land acknowledgement was being addressed. And what we discovered was that approximately 10% of students and parents had an understanding of why we were using this introduction to our public meetings. Staff was higher at about 50% saying that they understood why the land acknowledgement was there. Didn't necessarily understand all the background of it but they understood why we were saying it. We also asked the question about the level of confidence in explaining truth and reconciliation. And we had about 30% of staff say that they had a good level of confidence with that. But then the flip side of that of course is that they're 70% who don't know or have no confidence or little confidence in talking about that. We found even lower confidence in knowing how to infuse indigenous perspectives into the programs of study as well as when or how elder or knowledge keeper support should be accessed that we dropped down to about 22% of teachers and elders should be brought into the classroom in order to gain that full perspective. And ultimately we found out that a lot of the majority the majority of work that was being done in schools was through one-off activities such as Orange Shirt Day. People were doing a nice job of introducing Orange Shirt Day but when it ended it ended and there's no real follow through there's no consistent connection to deepening the knowledge and that was an area that we know that we need to build up and hence the desire to start to build up that foundational knowledge across the board. All right, so some great data gathering there and really does point to where can we continue this work and where would be as a district or as a school align this work and build on it. Exactly. Yeah. So very nice. So thinking about as leaders then gathering that information about potential issues and you could see you know there may have been some potential issues there you could read in between the lines. Yes. Implementation methods the risks the benefits in order to envision a future in which stakeholders demonstrate that awareness understanding and application and convening groups at all levels of the system or the school including elders and other indigenous people is an important first step and the greater the diversity of the roles or function of these people in these discussions the more complete the picture will be in terms of the challenges and the better you will be able to make decisions about an implementation plan. You need to hear voices representation from all the different stakeholder groups. So as you begin your planning who will you invite into your discussions? Elders, knowledge keepers would be important but parents, community members, students, teachers, support staff we need to hear all of their voices and they need to be brought into the picture. Interesting I hear that a lot as well as I'm not sure how you know what is the protocol and I will show you some resources later on on the Empower and the Spirit website to help you with that as well because that often is a bit of well I don't know what to do so I'm just going to wait until I figure that out. Yes. We can't wait. We have to get moving and there are resources to help you with that. So this tool on this slide is one way to gauge your school's readiness and the link to this tool is included in your folder but there are six elements that are listed on this tool you'll see them there fit, need, capacity, resources, evidence, and readiness along with some key ideas some key reflective questions related to each element. This tool can assist you and your team in reflecting about where you believe your school or district is at in terms of readiness and they kind of rated high, medium, and low and so you reflect on each element you rate yourself high, medium, and low and then there are numbers related to that so you get a total score in the end and the total score will give you an indication of whether you're not ready getting there or ready to go and it's absolutely not a scientific score but it is one that certainly generates excellent discussion and so Crystal share some insights in terms of the leaders in your district and and what happened with that. The comments that I gathered after the process that we worked through was that most of us well all of us as it is visual it allows us to see and understand what areas require attention in order for change to happen successfully. We could see immediately what low scores were there so they could flag those areas that we needed to address first and gave us a starting point right. We felt it would be really useful to use with all of our staffs in order to establish a process because this work is so huge that having a tool to determine a starting point gives you a sense of control because you know what areas you're ready in and what areas you need to develop and one principle specifically reflected saying I'm looking forward to using the hexagon tool with staff as a means to continue examining our current conditions in terms of readiness to change and what things we need to consider as we move forward. So it's a simple document but it's very powerful it gives you an immediate sense of where you can begin. And I think it's also the conversations that come out of that that are so enlightening. Yeah. So using a tool such as this as well as the conversations the surveys that you are using you are now ready or in a better position to begin planning how to build indigenous foundational knowledge. And so teams need to anticipate the risks involved and have a plan and that's this whole planning piece again to manage risks, issues and surprises that inevitably emerge from the change process. But this is an important piece as well. Any plan for change should assume that schools have some practices already in place that are valued. And change should supplement what already works not supplant efforts that are valued working for some and hard one. And you heard in Elk Island they're working on the land acknowledgement. Let's build on the successes that are happening there and then go deep in that area. It is the great vehicle to get you to your planning. So what can help you with the planning process? Well this resource on this slide provides guidance in designing a comprehensive plan for creating awareness understanding and application of indigenous foundational knowledge. It has a very long title and I'm not going to read it to you but it is really a planning and implementation tool. You might recognize it. It is included in your folder but this resource was created in response to requests from leaders across the region. You will see that it's familiar because if you know the guide to support the implementation the essential conditions document the green one shown on the slide here. This resource that we were using with Elk Island Catholic schools is aligned to the essential conditions document. It is an excellent comprehensive and well-researched planning and implementation tool. And because the essential condition document was so strong this indigenous planning document was aligned after it because we know it would result in success. This document has is supported by some guiding principles. So first of all recognizing that diversity exists within school communities this indigenous planning and implementation tool is not intended to prescribe a specific approach to implementation planning and how we wish we could have this kind of step by step approach a silver bullet and we'd all get this work done. Well that's not going to happen. It's a reflection tool. It asks some guiding questions and it is based on the idea that as Justice Murray Sinclair said it will take time and needs to be based on local context. So it offers guiding questions to support implementation planning that intentionally addresses each of these seven essential conditions that I'll share with you in a moment. It also offers suggestions for what might be used as evidence that the essential conditions are being addressed and gathering evidence and celebrating those small wins is critical to moving forward and often forms next steps in planning. And so addressing the essential conditions as we have said already it's important to collaborate community and to reflect on the guiding questions and then enforce strategies procedures and processes to assist in identifying who will be responsible for what by when and at what cost. And you start building your plan you start to see oh crystals responsible for this oh crystals doing this oh crystal again and so you want the beauty of this document is that it becomes visual and you start to see who's doing what by when and it gives you a really clear sense of direction and then again that whole idea of establishing evidence to assist your community in knowing that the essential conditions have been addressed. And so here they are here are the seven essential conditions shared vision leadership research and evidence resources teaching professional growth time and community engagement and the conditions are interrelated and no or six each condition must be addressed if you wish to have successful implementation. And I show this slide quite often because I think it is just such a great visual in terms of how they're interconnected and how if you miss addressing one essential condition success is not as evident. And so if you look at this one if all the pieces are in place with an action plan it equals change that's the top roll. But if you're missing vision and everything else is in place you end up with confusion people keep saying why are we doing this? What's the point in this? And so vision is really important. If you miss the professional growth for your leaders for your teachers for those stakeholders you end up with anxiety people are worried and our principles have said that I don't know this myself how can I lead this? So we need to offer the learning the opportunities for our stakeholders to read if we miss the research and the evidence that the research based practices the evidence which is the data collection we end up with gradual change because we're not sure if we're being successful or not and if we miss the resources that's time resources community engagement we end up with frustration and finally if there is no action plan at all you have all starts it's hit and miss and we heard Crystal talking about that already where it was an isolated incidence of this but not an aligned cohesive moving forward so those falls starts so what does that document look like? The implementation tool actually is quite similar as you go through it each essential condition is addressed addressed in the same way so let's unpack the shared vision essential condition and take a look at it if you have the resource in front of you that's great if you don't don't worry I have the key ideas on the slide again and you can go back to that resource later it is in your folder so each essential condition includes a descriptor of the condition the current state or where are we now kind of reflection guiding questions a planning template and then evidence of success and so if we unpack those a little bit further you can see that when we look at a shared vision it really it take time to read the descriptor because it does really deepen your thinking around okay where are we going with this what should we do so when a school and a school authority leaders demonstrate a shared vision and a commitment to develop awareness understanding and application of indigenous foundational knowledge within the school community this vision is evident in the school authorities policies so it's talking district level there in the plans and procedures of the school authority district wide as well as school plans and in the culture and practices of schools and classrooms so the next section of the planning tool talks about your current state and reflection on that so are you creating a shared vision and who are you engaging in that vision and you can see you're just beginning you might be on the road getting closer or keep it up and it really talks about the different stakeholders in this couple other questions around the current state are you aligning your shared vision um is it aligned with your three-year education your schools are in the district this is an important piece because we know the complexity of the work we know about the competing initiatives and we need to to have a sense of that and build that into the plan is our plan too heavy is it do we need to stretch out our timelines because we have so many other things happening and so really need to be thinking about that oh and so I not sure what to do here Christine did you see that okay sorry I think maybe I might have to get a little closer to the mic so then a commitment to the shared vision school and school authority leaders are working collaboratively with all stakeholders to create conditions and provide the necessary resources to develop awareness understanding and application and so this one is about how clear are you in communicating the commitment to your vision and I think it's always a great little litmus test to talk to anybody and say what do you think we're doing this work and it really tells you how clear you are around communicating the vision and how are you in vision around this work and so great reflective questions there around your current state and you can dig deeper because there are guiding questions to help you to go a little bit deeper with those I won't read those all to you but certainly take a look at them because they spark your thinking it helps you to go deeper in terms of that work then you have a template there to help you begin your planning this is an example of one template and you know we we've offered you several here in this webinar because we all know you have different styles in terms of writing and so this is who is responsible by when and resources needed in relation to the shared vision condition or essential condition and then you look at examples of evidence and I love this part because it again triggers ideas for you you go like maybe we need to be looking for that so it's really great in terms of examples and then what you need to do is develop your own examples of what it is that you expect to see here and people understand as you're moving forward with this work and so when you see those things it's again that idea celebrate those small wins this is complex work we need to build in those celebrations of yes we're moving forward so this slide here is a suggestion and I know that each one of you as leaders approach planning and implementation differently based on your local context and based on your leadership style this slide offers some suggestions they're pretty basic feel free to revise in any way you think is going to work better in terms of your context but certainly consider what is already in place how can I build on that then you know using that hexagon tool or the reflections in the implementation tool what still needs to be done and list those strategies and processes and procedures and decide then when will this be done when is it reasonable and who will take the lead and the responsibility again being cautious of how much responsibility one individual can take on link that to the resources that are needed and again the reminder resources are finite and do a few things well and then establish that evidence so that's a quick kind of step by step process I lied I said I wasn't going to give you that but it does kind of give you a bit of a start in terms of how you might begin this work in your folder you have another sample template and this one takes a different approach it talks about foundational understanding strengthening and then enduring success I love this language and I would love to say that I coined these phrases but I didn't we borrowed this from Edmonton public schools that is their language on their planning template and so if you like the language on this one feel free to use this template this one is more aligned to the document that I shared with you and it breaks it down by year so in year one we'll do this in year two we'll build on it year three that would be the sustaining piece and so your plan if you don't like those templates you might want to write a story or create a visual I know that some of us are great around those concept maps or mind maps a painting an artifact what works for you so having said all of that we'd like to now move into and so what are some of the resources that we can use in our planning and ARPDC has created wealth of amazing resources and they're all housed on this website at the Empowering the Spirit website the link to the website you'll see on the slide there this is only a screenshot and the first thing you kind of notice there is that e-course I put an arrow there a yellow arrow beside that e-course it's new there are spring and fall and winter sessions of this e-course and they have been very well received and if your staff or if you personally would like to begin your learning by engaging in this e-course it is open 24-7 it offers it as a self-paced study and really is quite comprehensive in terms of learning you'll also notice other tabs on this website foundational knowledge experiential learning professional learning resources and additional resources I just wanted to point out a few of the resources that are on there through the next few slides here the first tab is foundational knowledge and you can see that each one of those blue titles there are links to more resources so if you want to learn more about Métis people or Inuit people or the historical perspectives just link to those you'll find amazing resources the legacy of residential schools treaty education ways of knowing all kinds of resources there the last one though I do want to focus in on a little bit more those are the conversation guide series and here's a screenshot of the first page and the last page of one of the conversation guides these guides are these it's a series of 11 conversation guides and they're national leaders and learning communities or as a self-paced study and the guides give each reader parts of the truth that lead to individual that lead individuals and groups in the direction of reconciliation and so you'll see that there's some content there for groups or individuals to read and then the last page always has questions sorry questions for reflection and discussion and as well for more information additional resources should you want to go deeper in terms of your learning in any one of those topics and so they're a great resource they most often if you share this at a staff meeting you could spend maybe 30 minutes to an hour engaging in some really rich conversation and it is a great way to perhaps start building that understanding and awareness of indigenous foundational knowledge this is the next tab experiential learning and offer some great resources to let's say host a family night in your school if you'd like to host an indigenous family night several schools have done this and they're offering their insights into how to do that step by step in terms of the work if you want to do the blanket exercise in your school the scripts for the blanket exercise are there including a student script if students want to lead that work if you'd like to engage in the Metijake and enjoy some dancing there's that as well so all kinds of great resources there so take some time go through the empowering the spirit website because they are certainly the resources that are there are vetted they are the truth and they've been also supported by our indigenous leaders and so feel free to use those resources and knowing you're sharing the truth any comments about that crystal in terms of the resources no they are very they are very rich as Cori has said and it does take time to go through them to find the information that would be most applicable to your situation but they have thought and included such a vast array of ideas there that it is well worth the journey to to work your way through so the next tab there is about the professional learning resources that's for you as educators all kinds of things I'm not going to go through them all except to say that I absolutely love the seven grandfathers teachings website it is so visual and the way they kind of transition from one idea to the next is very powerful so have a look at that and so now we want to share with you some of the living indigenous educational plans created by elk island catholic schools and we have three plans to share with you but before we share the plans I do need to say on behalf of all of us and I'm including all of you that are participants express our deep appreciation for these three leaders they demonstrated the courage and the confidence to share their work in progress all in the spirit of learning and absolutely as you look at this it is a work in progress and it is not our place to judge their plan but to learn from them what you have in your folders in terms of those sample plans is their first attempt to create an implementation plan these plans reflect alignment between district work and priorities as well as local context you will see that each plan has some very unique elements and yet each plan also outlines some strategies processes and ideas that are common across the district real nice alignment there you have to know that these instructional leaders were very nervous about putting their draft ideas out there but from my perspective and in talking to them I said this is the real deal and this is what makes it so meaningful these plans reflect the true nature of the work complex emotional political and they take time the fact that they are not complete reinforces the authenticity and organic nature of this work so the plans as you I don't know if you've had a chance to look at them because we sent them out on Friday but they reflect ongoing meaningful and rich conversation with key stakeholders the instructional leaders were intentional about engaging the key stakeholders they use the hexagon tool they asked selected guiding questions from the planning tool they engaged in self and group reflections around the responses to those guiding questions they engaged in ongoing conversations with their elder and so much more what you see on paper does not tell the full story but simply the results of the story thus far these plans are living documents and living plans that will continue to evolve this is their first attempt to put ideas about how to build and apply indigenous foundational knowledge onto paper the front page of each plan that's in your folder provides some information about the school and as you review the plans I think it's important to consider context what works in one school may not necessarily be meaningful for your school and what you might do there so your school may be may be much further along in the journey may have a different starting point and on the other hand you may be in a similar place I'm confident that as you read the plans you'll deepen your understanding of how to effectively lead the creation of a plan it is not our intent to walk you through these plans but simply to share the entire plans with you so you can see how the essential conditions have guided their planning but yet offer flexibility to you as leaders to work through the plans and create plans that are meaningful and reflect your context so our intent is to invite you to review these plans on your own time when you can give it your full attention and not just a cursory glance but having said that we know that you know that we'll share a little bit and Crystal's going to share a few details about the plan to entice you to read further when the time is right as Cori had said the plans are organic and they are constantly here in a few moments do keep in mind that each of the leaders came to this work with very different backgrounds in terms of their level of foundational knowledge and their level of experience with indigenous culture and indigenous education in the plans also we had made our connection with elder Teresa Strawberry only late in the fall about November we made our first connection and as the leaders were coming together to start to look at this work we had only had a few interactions with elder Teresa but having her in the room and hearing her perspective I think really impacted the leaders in terms of what they felt they could do and felt more confident in having a very valid resource able to come out to work with each of the schools so when you take a look at the plans when you have that opportunity you'll see that they do look quite different from one another both in their format and then the level of detail the first plan I'll reference is Madonna Catholic School so it is a kindergarten to grade four that school has approximately 183 students in it with approximately nine self-identified indigenous students they created their plan with a three-year timeline in mind they identified very specific plans in relation to the physical space of their building how they wanted to utilize different areas versus but also how they would develop resources tailored to their needs and connecting with elder strawberry you'll see reference several times over the course of the plan they wanted to do that in order to create that enduring success the principles actually indicated since the plan was submitted that the plans already changed the work because of the work that they've already done they've accomplished several of the goals already indicated and right now the plan they believe will be able to come to fruition in two years so there's a perfect example of how this is a living document in the short time that it's been submitted they're already planning to change it because they can they can see that they were already moving on the next plan is Holy Spirit which is a kindergarten to grade eight school and much larger population well over 670 students with 33 self-identified indigenous students that school created their plan simply with a one-year timeline it featured again a greater number of targeted connections to Elder Strawberry and a focus on building up that foundational knowledge for the staff and for the school community collaboration opportunities between the district schools and other jurisdictions are also identified as ways to build resources and strength school where they're looking to build foundational knowledge across the board coming in with maybe a little less experience and wanting to make sure that the whole school moves together in building that awareness and in building that knowledge and certainly creating those connections between the school and other resources is a target that they want to be able to accomplish the third school is Saint John the 23rd and it is a grade 4th no it's a K to 4th school and it has a population of 433 students with 27 self-identified indigenous you can see that that plan follows a very different format to develop ideas within a one-year timeline the plan features a really strong emphasis on utilizing the land acknowledgement as an interactive foundational piece to create awareness and understanding as well as accessing accessing professional development opportunities to build staff confidence and competence with their foundational knowledge so they plan a series of interactions with that land acknowledgement so that it becomes very well embedded within students understanding and comfort and they've got they have some really interesting activities planned for that but they've also identified the ongoing building of a relationship with elder strawberry and on and collaboration opportunities within the community so each school is approaching their plan with a slightly different focus and yet a consistent theme running through all of them is that awareness of connecting with elder strawberry and and other members of the indigenous community so that the voice is authentic and the work is supported and it is going to be true to what we want to be able to do thanks crystal and you know I was reflecting as you were talking about the three schools in our first meeting that we had with the three principals crystal myself and elder strawberry so critical to moving this work forward yes to have those conversations with the elder she gave us insights she shared her thinking it was so powerful and I think all three leaders walked away going oh I'm so glad that happened first and every subsequent interaction that we've had with elder Teresa since then just continues to to deepen that understanding of what we're doing and how we should be doing it and so I think each of the leaders were tremendously grateful to have such a an extended period of time to chat with her and to to gain her perspective so if you can build that into your initial planning I think that is a strong way to go the local elder brings that local context to it and helps you to shape your planning around okay what is it we need to plan around for this area for our region and so I can't speak enough to the power of bringing our indigenous people to co-plan with us right from the start so having said all of that there are some reflections and suggestions from the three leaders that they would like to share with you and so we actually asked them questions around okay so how did you find the planning tool what were some of your successes what are some of your challenges and so in relation to the planning tool they found it valuable to speak to the indigenous persons just as we just finished saying right at the very beginning of the process and that conversation they said was rich and again the next bullet is around elder Theresa again Theresa Strawberry and the conversation took these leaders to different discussion points than what was originally planned for the meeting and that was so true it was like wow that went really in a different way than what we thought initially but it was the right way to go right and that being said more time with these larger group meetings would have been helpful and so I think what this leader is saying to have time to collaborate with leaders in your district is also very powerful have those conversations and create that alignment from school to school across the entire district ask those questions share the ideas and the experiences that are happening in other schools make those connections visit each other schools learn from each other around what's happening there very powerful the leader said a key piece to beginning this project and moving forward was having a very specific share vision and gold in mind instead of looking at all the possibilities of what we could do can we relate to that because we're all going you know I got a thousand and one ideas examine what we are currently focusing on and expanding what seemed to be the most logical fit we don't want to overwhelm everyone think about what's logical and what's working well already and build on that so she said he said I can't remember now it gave guidance to our next steps as we as well as continuity within our present work a dedicated amount of time is certainly needed for this project and finding this time as well as personal personnel within the building to assist in this planning was difficult being really honest about that and being prepared for that we started off with Justice Murray St. Clair talking about this we'll take three four seven generations and I think as leaders we always want to get this work done tomorrow we're going like boom boom boom we want to have it done this takes some careful thinking reflective conversations and we need to plan for that so the tools talking about the hexagon tool and the implement this leader said the current state questions were helpful in reflection and the guiding questions and the examples of evidence were helpful in understanding what action items we could consider for our school's plan it made the plan easier to create with the ideas that were set out in each page so again you know we said that before but it does spark ideas for a unit helps you go a little bit deeper another leader said I appreciate I appreciate the where do we go to ensure that all the conditions were considered in planning each step another honesty here I found the table too tight to work in and found myself moving away from the document in order to write out my thoughts and we talked about that everybody's style is different so find a style that works for you and your team again when using the planning document at times we did feel we were going in circles be prepared for that however we knew we had to stick to the process we were true to the process we went through the planning documents read them out and discuss them and because of that we have a plan and a direction for our school so we found the tool valuable we are now very confident in the direction that we are going and finally this is not easy work you do need to dig in we utilized the Hexagon tool and did note our limited knowledge as a staff it does give you that sense and it does help in terms of direction in terms of your planning complexity we asked about the complexity of this work did you want to talk to these ones crystal sure I'll just read them through and then comment on them after our meetings with the three principals the elder and the ERLC consultant the FNMI lead and I sat together and we spent four hours going through the process and coming up with the plan we still need to share the plan back to our staff at the next staff meeting this plan cannot be done in isolation approach the plan collaboratively and hands down because I do work still in a school along with my consultant position I was part of the planning at one of the schools and absolutely it can't be done in isolation you can't go and sit in an office and think that you can just hammer this thing out yourself you need to have those conversations with other people to know what their perspective is and when you get all the ideas coming together and you've got the voice of the elder guiding you then that's how we're able to make true one of the other leaders did mention our plan will take up to three years to implement but we believe we can do it in two years we've already changed the timeline flexibility is important as you digest your plan and you begin to think deeply about aligning the work so sometimes I think we don't give ourselves credit for how much work we have done but it does take recognizing that and really we can't recognize that until you have the opportunity to take a look at that and this particular leader they were able to to see how much they've actually been able to accomplish already and hence the fact the change in their timeline so the tips and strategies that they have suggested is primarily to set aside time it really came down to time with your planning team we need to take that time in order to make it valuable because you can't just throw it together it is an evolving process you think you have some ideas down but as you work your way through the tool you realize oh you know what let's go back and rethink about that and so it you need to be prepared to to put that time into it and not get frustrated because you know lots of ideas will come out and you need to make sure that they're aligned with the goal that you have in mind and finally what was especially helpful was writing a current state statement for each area that clearly outlined what we have done and what we're currently doing at the school because it gave a clear direction as to what our next steps would be you really need to know that before you can decide what you want to do you really need to know where you're at and what you have accomplished or what you haven't accomplished and so understanding that present state is able that's what enables you to be able to make a plan for the future because you have a starting point so and we don't want to scare you off saying oh this is going to take a huge amount of time that wasn't the intent but really to plan and begin now to be thinking about okay are we going to start this and who are we going to engage and set aside that time which is why it is one of the essential conditions time is an essential condition if you don't put the time set aside the time for that and make a dedicated time for planning your success will not be as strong so absolutely so as a wrap up then we've covered off a lot today and you know I'm going back to the outcomes that we shared with you at the beginning and so we did spend some time reflecting on your personal reasons for leading this work in your school community and you know we said start with the heart and bring those people with you that also start with the heart because that is going to move the work forward that will give you the commitment and the strong desire to move forward with this work especially when you come up against challenges you need to have that heart there with you we reflected on a school or district readiness for creating awareness understanding and application of indigenous foundational knowledge and it is a critical first step are you ready how do you know that you're ready and what do you need to do to get readiness in place we learned about the planning tools that may assist you in designing comprehensive plans and we had some reflections on the use of those planning tools as well we shared the indigenous resources through the Empowering the Spirit website that you can use that you can embed in your plans and we talked about the strength of those resources and the wealth of those resources and then we viewed some sample plans by the leaders here in Alcalan Catholic schools so I shared a lot with you today and we hope that you found this webinar worthwhile it is only a starting point for you obviously and it is my hope that you'll take some time after this webinar to read through the resources that are included in the folder that was sent out to you they will most certainly value add to your understanding of how to lead this important work and then you must begin so just to wrap it up as mentioned earlier this webinar has been recorded on the Empowering the Spirit website feel free to go back and revisit this webinar at any time and both Crystal and I wish to thank you for participating in this webinar we wish you all the best as you begin or continue your journey to create awareness, understanding and application of indigenous foundational knowledge in your school or across your district you'll see contact information there at the bottom of the slide and feel free to contact either one of us any of the leaders of the three plans that we're shared with you today just go through Crystal and she'd be happy to arrange that for you so thank you again for participating and best wishes as you move forward